


mind-blowingly duplicitous.

by Whitefenix



Series: Natasha romanov & Company [2]
Category: Captain America, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, F/M, More tags to be added, Platonic Relationship, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-17
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2018-09-25 01:27:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9796307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whitefenix/pseuds/Whitefenix
Summary: "you realize I could call ross right now and you would be locked up and charged with treason.” tony threatened her,“you won’t.”“how do you know that?” he asked her.“because you need help, you know it, and I’m the only one willing to give it to you.”pepper call her and tells her she's concerned about tony. she didn't want to go, but she did anyways. because even after all the shit that had gone down, they were friends, and friends take care of eachother.





	1. Long Time No See

“Mr. Stark, a cloaked quinjet is approaching the facilities. Should I activate the defense protocol?”

“Who is it?”

“It's agent Romanoff, sir.”

“You come here? Just like that?” Tony said to himself, taking a sip of his second- third drink? He wasn’t sure. Nobody else lived in the base anymore. Rhodes left the country to establish himself in France, in the most advanced recovery center for traumatic injuries.

“Sir, the computer of the Quinjet has requested my assistance to land. Shall I take over the control of the aircraft?”

“Go ahead Friday.”

A couple of minutes went by and Tony felt the familiar sound of a quinjet landing in the outside platform. He walked to the hangar doors. The engines stopped, and a figure walked out when the ramp went down.

“Friday turn on the compound’s outdoor lighting”

  
The outside lamps turn on, and Tony recognizes Natasha’s face, but not the hair. It's dark brown, almost black. She was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and black convers. A look far from Natasha's style. It made sense,at least, it was a warm night.

“Why are you here? I don’t want you here." he said, drink in hand. “Fuck off Natalie. Or Natasha. Or whatever you’re calling yourself now.” He walked back inside. She followed behind, catching the door before it closed. Tony walked slightly faster towards the living room, as fast as the alcohol in his blood allowed. His view started to fade, and the room was turning, so he stopped, knowing that if he continued he could pass out. He sat in the nearest couch, rubbing his eyes with his hands.

“Pepper called me. She was worried, she said you weren’t answering her calls.”

  
“why should I? she left me!” Tony said. This kind of thing constantly reminded her the old Tony. Selfish, egocentric, narcissistic.

_“God, you’re good. You are mind-blowingly duplicitous. How do you do this? You’re a triple Impostor, I’ve never seen anything like it. Is there anything real about you? Do you even speak Latin?”_

He wasn’t good at keeping secrets either. She only came because pepper begged her, She owed nothing to him. 

"you realize I could call ross right now and you would be locked up and charged with treason.” tony threatened her.

"tony-"

"I'm serious!" he said, as he poured himself another drink.

 Natasha's face changed from annoyed to neutral in a second.

"oh look at that. there you go. the black widow is here." he said mocking her. 

“you won’t.” she said, "you won't call him."

“how do you know that?” he asked her.

“because you need help, you know it, and I’m the only one willing to give it to you.” she admitted to him.

"How are they, by the way?”

  
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen them.” Natasha said.

” I don’t believe you” Tony said

 _They were forced to run and hide, thanks to you.”_ She wanted to say, but she didn’t expect to find him like this. Tonight was not the night for fighting.

“I’m telling you the truth.” She decided to say instead.

"Thanks, Natasha. It's good you act like a human being occasionally. why can't any of you see that I was trying to do the good thing!”

  
“Then you should’ve realized that the Sokovian accords weren’t the right way to do so.” She said, and walked away into the dormitory section. Tony didn’t follow, he allowed her own privacy. He was too angry to say anything to her anyway, and there was a constricting feeling growing inside him that can not share his mental headspace with fighting with natasha. pure anxiety. 

\---

 

_Control Natalia, control._

The words resonated distantly in her brain. Natasha headed for her old room, not intending to enter it, she just needed to walk around and clear her mind. Tony was drunk. Very, very drunk. There were a couple of cuts under his chin from a razor blade. The drinking has been constant for a while now then. There were purple bags under his eyes, which were also puffy and red, probably because he hadn’t been sleeping. She got to her room-the door was open. but there was nothing in it. she walked to the middle of the room, it was bigger without  her stuff obviously. from behind her she could feel tony staring at her.

“they took all of your stuff. And Steve’s, and Wanda’s, and everybody’s” Tony said, sniffing. Trying to compose himself.

“I took everything that mattered from here before they came.” She said, pausing and walking towards him. she got close to him, putting her hand on his shoulder and caressing it slowly, they were silent for a moment. 

“Tony?”  she said, breaking the silence between them.

“Natasha” he anwered,

“how long you’ve been drinking like this”

“it’s not what you- “ tony tried to explain.

“how do you know what I’m thinking” Natasha said,

“nah I just imagined, it’s not like that.” He said, putting the least convincing serious face.

“well, then you’re dangerously close to it. When was the last time you slept?” she changed topics,

“a full night? I don’t know, I don’t remember. A week ago, maybe a little more.”

“then you’re going straight to bed.” She said, taking him by one arm and guiding him to the elevator. Some time ago now, when they moved into the facility, he said they could choose the location of their rooms, that  it could be underground or in the surface, she chose to have a real window. Tony on the other side like having his room underground, he didn’t use it much at the time anyway, since he was always at the lab.

“Don’t you want to eat first? We’ll order food, have a drink. You can tell me all of the spy things you’ve been doing lately” resisting Natasha’s pull a little.

“We are not having drinks, and I suspect there is enough whisky in your stomach to make you vomit the second you eat something tangible. Straight to bed, and I’m not telling you anything. Not right now at least.”

She dragged him to his room, at least the doors opened automatically, one less thing to worry about. Tony fell on top of his bed and didn’t get up.

" you can crash on the guest room." tony said, 

"im staying, I don't want to find you dead because you choked on your vomit or something like that, pepper would never forgive me."

“Tony?”

She heard him mumble something incoherent and fall asleep. she took her shoes off and unclasped her bra under her shirt. The sofa would be her bed tonight.


	2. Avoidance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> almost ten months late yeahhh

“Rise and shine princess.” She said as the lights turned on and the screen that acted as a window displayed a penthouse view of central Manhattan.

“Ughh….fuck….” tony growled, rubbing his eyes.

“yup, you’re not thirty anymore.” She said, pouring him a cup of coffee from the jug she’d brought from the main floor.

“What are you still doing here.” He asked, “I don’t mean it in the bad way, just- really what are you doing here?”

“I already told you. pepper called, she was concerned. Before you ask no I don’t know why she didn’t come herself, she’s probably busy running your company. Drink your coffee and shut up.”

“why are you so bossy? and I didn’t mention pepper, you did.” Tony said sipping his coffee.

“she says you haven’t answered her calls.” Natasha said.

“I never answer my calls.”

“you do when it’s pepper.”

“I forgot to call her back.”

“That’s bullshit. You know it. What’s up tony, tell me.”

“So you can report back to Steve about my miserable life?”

“I haven’t seen them tony, I already told you. They left, the last time I saw him was Leipzig. I signed the accords, I don’t belong in his team.”

“Where have you been then?”

“all over the world, because I’m a fugitive. You’re evading my question stark.” She said, without being too specific.

“there’s nothing up. I’m just living my life.”

 “I didn’t mean it, when I said that thing about the double agent, after the fight. At the hospital- I was just so angry about Rhodey and Rogers and everything. I didn’t mean it. I was angry.”

“no tony, you did mean it. It was shitty, and you meant it. It was our past playing against us. You thought I was playing you like back in 2010. It wasn’t like that. I just changed my mind and the wrong time.” Natasha said,

“I was trying to be polite” tony said. “but you must admit, you chose a terrible time to change your mind. Want something to eat?”

“We’re going shopping tony. You have literally nothing in your refrigerator, or shelves.”

“Excuse me, miss international fugitive, how do you plan to do that.”

“it’s been almost a year tony. Nobody is looking for me here.  You shop, I shadow you and drop things by your cart now and then. after that you’re going to get a haircut, because you look like a hobo.” Natasha said,” we leave in ten.”

They got to the store and shopped all kinds of food, making sure he didn’t have to leave the base for a month at least.

* * *

 

“why didn’t you go back to the tower?” said a voice in his ear through the comms, Natasha’s voice. She was somewhere behind him. looking civilian enough not to raise any flags.

“I like this place. There are no people around for at least a mile. In New York half of the building is occupied by stark industries, and there are cars and helicopters and lights and people everywhere I go. Here I can come and shop for vegetables on the market without anyone bothering me.”

“that’s nice. I don’t know If I could live this kind of life, I’m too used to the other stuff. Jetlag and Flying hybrid combat ships, although that is going away now, it’s been almost three years since I’ve slept in the Helicarrier. By the way is not as uncomfortable as it sounds, it has a nice level for senior agent dormitories. Don’t you get bored tony?”

“bored of what? I’ve been working nonstop on some tech I’m developing for renewable-resources energy production, it’s easy to concentrate without distractions.”

“what about the house in Malibu?”

“that’s pepper’s house now.”

“and what about pepper, have you seen her?”

“she’s a very busy woman now a day, but we had dinner a couple of months ago.”

They stopped talking when tony noticed an old lady was looking at him. Of course it made sense she was, because he was talking to someone, without anyone around. Natasha walked past the cart and dropped a bottle of wine. Then they headed to the check-out section, payed, and headed home.

They had lunch in the ex-avengers facility, Natasha cooked. They had a glass of wine each. After that tony went down to the lab and Natasha followed, since he wanted to show her something.

Tony pointed around a big metal contraption, showing her the latest upgrades in the holographic projection. It was a device that would theoretically enhance the production of wind powered energy by 60%, if tony could fix the issue that the machine had.

“what is that?” she asked, pointing with her eyes to a desk full of tiny contraptions, bits of   tactical fabric and straps and something looking extremely similar to her widow bites.

“that’s something I was working on, it’s based on your tech.

“does it work?”

“no, it doesn’t”

“why?”

“why what?”

“why doesn’t it work?”

“because I never finished it.”

“will you? ever finish it? I like your tech tony. It’s good. Though the last suit you did was flashy, not the best for the type of thing I do. The blue lights aren’t exactly stealthy. But what was it anyway?”  


“It’s an electromagnet, like the one Steve had, it’s what hold Steve’s shield in place. I was trying to put it on your widow bites, because I’d seen you fight together with his shield a lot. But it interfered with the EMP of course. I was trying to solve that, and then I forgot to finish it.”

“well, I don’t see much use for it now.” She said, unapologetically. “ Still, you haven’t answered my question tony. What’s up?”

Tony didn’t answer, as soon as she mentioned that the implementation was useless he glued his eyes to the screen where he was programing the windmill energy enhancer device.

“don’t shut me out tony, I’m here for you”

 

 


End file.
